Jesus Alone

SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP SERVICE, 24 March 2024

Sermon Text: Matthew 17:1-8 & John 3:16-18
Sermon Series: “Jesus’ Suffering to Resurrection” (#4)

Main Points:
Introduction
I. Trusting Jesus alone for my salvation
II. Why must I trust Jesus?
III. Trusting Jesus in His suffering and death as my Substitute
Conclusion

One day, Jesus called three disciples out of the twelve – namely, Peter, James and John – to accompany Him to an unknown high mountain. Once before this occasion, Jesus had asked these three disciples to come with Him and enter the room of the deceased daughter of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue. On that occasion, they witnessed Jesus’ miracle of raising the dead girl back to life. We’re not told whether these three disciples at this moment of Mt. 17 remembered that special occasion and expected anything extraordinary on their way to the top of this unknown mountain. At a certain spot on the mountain, Jesus’ outward appearance was changed – transfigured – before their eyes. Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. Try to imagine what these disciples might’ve had in their minds. As Jesus transfigured, Moses and Elijah of the OT appeared and spoke with Jesus.

How could they know that those persons appeared were Moses and Elijah? I believe that no explanation or introduction was necessary. They must’ve heard their greetings and calling each other – perhaps, saying something like, ‘Greetings, Lord Jesus’ and ‘Shalom, Moses; shalom, Elijah.’ Watching Jesus shining like the sun and talking with these extraordinary figures of the OT, Peter, James and John were stunned and breathless. Peter said impromptu – and I guess, loudly – “Lord, it is good that we are here.” Of course, it must’ve been like heaven. And he continued, “If You wish, I will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” How typical man he was! What he saw, he’d believe and wish to worship – like many others would – a typical human being he was. But while he was still speaking, a bright cloud suddenly overshadowed them all and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” All three disciples immediately fell down on the ground, being terrified. When Jesus touched them and said, “Rise, and have no fear,” they looked and saw Jesus alone standing there.

Just imagine what Peter, James and John would’ve had in their minds. Still the voice they had heard must’ve resounded in their hearts, and the command to listen to Jesus, God’s beloved Son, must’ve been engraved – letter by letter – onto their souls. There they saw and heard the truth about who Jesus is as the Saviour and Lord to whom every sinner must come and listen, and by believing, be saved.

As we continue the sermon theme, ‘Jesus’ suffering to resurrection,’ I’d like you today to focus on the truth that Jesus alone saves sinners. Seek to grasp this truth. Know why Jesus alone saves. Why not Moses or Elijah? Why not Mr Albanese or King Charles or the trilateral security partnership AUKUS? But Jesus ALONE saves? That’ll be the first point for us to consider today. Then, we’ll see why you and I must trust Jesus – what of Jesus makes you trust Him as your Saviour. And lastly, I’d like to see why Jesus’ suffering and death become your eternal comfort.

I. Trusting Jesus Alone For My Salvation
Before telling you why no one else but Jesus alone saves, let me say this to you – you’re not saved because you believe in God the Father, nor are your sins forgiven through your faith in the Holy Spirit. I’m telling you this to eliminate any attempt, any assumption, any idea, to look away from Jesus in search of a saviour. I’m presenting to you an extreme argument to prove how firmly and unquestionably Jesus alone is the Saviour of the world. Neither any creature nor any idol saves anyone.

Of course, sinners must trust God the Father and God the Holy Spirit for their salvation. If anyone does not believe in the Father or the Holy Spirit, that person is eternally damned. But what I mean is that your faith in the Father and in the Spirit is the result of your faith in the Son Jesus. You believe in Jesus as your Saviour, and the outcome of that faith in the Son is your presence before the Father and reception of the Holy Spirit. No one comes to the Father directly for his/her salvation. Only through Jesus do you come to God Almighty, and only through the Son does the Holy Spirit come to you and indwell you.

Listen to Jesus as recorded in Jn. 14:6, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.” Then, I believe many of you remember His absolutely amazing words, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” So, before knowing the Father, you met Jesus; before trusting the Father, your heart was softened and melted by the saving grace of the Son; before walking with the Spirit, you set your hope on Christ.

Jesus is the Way through whom you come to the Father; He is the Truth through whom the full measure of the Triune God is revealed to your soul; Jesus is the Life through whom the love of the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit flow unto you. Jesus alone saves; by trusting in Him alone, you were saved, and believing Him alone, you will be saved!

You must understand that the only condition for salvation is your faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Not is your worthiness to receive Jesus’ mercy, nor is your willingness to make your move toward Jesus the condition of your salvation. The only condition for one’s salvation is ‘faith.’ And the Bible is clear about the nature of this faith that saves. It is a gift from above, from the gracious and loving God. Once you believe in Jesus and are saved, once you love your Heavenly Father and walk with the Holy Spirit, you’ll see the beauty of this gift from above!

II. Why Must I Trust Jesus?
Then, our next point is ‘Why must I, why must you, trust Jesus?’ What of Jesus make you and I trust Him. Its first and foremost answer is simple – that is, because He is ‘very God of very God’! This phrase, ‘very God of very God,’ is from the Nicene Creed which is one of the oldest Christian confessions or creeds, adopted by the apostolic Church in 325 AD. In this Creed, Jesus is described as ‘Light of Light, very God of very God.’

John the Apostle’s description of Jesus was one of the grounds of the Nicene Creed as the apostle says in Jn. 1 that Jesus was with God in the beginning, and He was God. Moreover, through Jesus all things were made. According to the plan of God the Father, God the Son being ‘the Word’ brought forth all things in the world, and God the Holy Spirit breathed His life to all beings. The Apostle Paul adds more to explain who Jesus is in Col. 1 by saying this: “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God … For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him.” Then, he hits the bull’s eye by saying in v. 17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Wow! Did you hear the last part of this verse? It says, “in Him all things hold together.” All things you know, all things in this whole world – both visible and invisible – are held together in Him, Jesus Christ! This means, without Him, apart from Him, Jesus, nothing exists or stands, no one breathes. No wonder why a society that despises Jesus crumbles and clashes! This is why you must trust Jesus, why you must bow to Him – He is God, very God of very God!

What makes you believe Him more is that He was man like you and like me. This is a truly amazing and mind-blowing ground for your trust in Him. The very God of very God became man; the Infinite was born as a baby, ‘robed in the infant,’ and laid in a manger. The mystery of His incarnation is deep – not to turn anyone away from Him because it is the deepest mystery, but to draw men and women closer to the Saviour and deepen their appreciation and enlarge each one’s joy in trusting Him because of the beauty and mercy this mystery displays. He came for you specifically rather than an unnamed mass out there, somewhere. No, that’s not why He became man. He came to meet you and to meet me, individuals like us who are in need of a Saviour because we can never save us nor anyone else! Moreover, He came to be one of us! He lowered Himself from heaven above to down below to be a servant of servants, to serve sinners like us.

Would any of you be able to volunteer and go into a palliative care unit in a hospital to serve there for the rest of your life? Or put your hand up for going into battlefields like the eastern Europe or the Gaza Strip to save lives? Such are the lowest positions I could think of for anyone could lower himself/herself, in comparison to Jesus’ coming into this world. But no case of this world can be compared to Jesus’ coming down from above. The Infinite lowered Himself to be a mortal.

And if any of you does such a voluntary work, those people you serve would trust you wholly and with their own lives. Then, how much more and deeper must you trust Jesus for His becoming man like you to serve you? The God of the universe came to you and to me to meet us! And this is why you must believe in Jesus.

You must also believe in Him because of His perfect righteousness. Heb. 4:15 is clear about it, saying that Jesus was ‘without sin.’ His sinlessness means He kept all commandments of God and His requirements for man. Jesus’ keeping of all that is not for His own interest but for your benefit and mine. He did that for us because never can you and I keep all that – no, let me rephrase and say, we never be able to keep any one tiny bit of God’s commands! So, only in His perfect righteousness, sinners like you and I can taste the sweetness of remission and the excitement of eternal life.

III. Trusting Jesus In His Suffering And Death As My Substitute
You must believe in Jesus because He is God as well as man like you. You must trust Him because He was perfect, spotless, only to impute His righteousness to you. He came for you and lived for your benefit.

Then, the most marvellous and magnificent reason for your belief in Jesus is His suffering and death on your behalf and in your stead. He suffered in your stead, and He died your death. He was despised by the world, not because He deserved that disgrace, but because you were going to be despised by Satan. Jesus was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief, as Isa. 53:3 states. The eternal God, glorious and awesome in His power and wisdom and glory, had no reason for being sorrowful or acquainting with grief. But so was He while on earth because of you and to take away your sorrow which you would’ve had for now and for eternity in hell if you remained lost in sin.

Jesus was also smitten and spat on for the same purpose, that is, to take away from you whips and lashes you would’ve had if you were destined to hell. His hands and feet were pierced on the cross in your stead and on your behalf, and He took the judgment you would’ve faced and suffered eternally, if you were in the darkness of sin until the very end of your earthly life! Then, finally, Jesus Christ gave up His life on the tree instead of you! By dying in your position, He paid the penalty you owed in your sin, in your rebellion against God!

How could that be possible? I mean, how could Jesus’ suffering become yours and His death your death, relieving you once and for all from what you deserved? My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus, my fellow born-again Christians, please listen carefully. If any of you is not yet a believer, please clear your ears and mind, and listen to what I say. Jesus became your Substitute – He was you when He suffered; He was you when He was nailed on the cross; He was you when He gave up His life! In Him, you suffered and were nailed and died on that day, on that tree at Calvary!

When Jesus suffered, God the Father took the sufferings of all His people – that is, you and I and all true believers of Jesus Christ – and lifted them off from us and laid them upon Jesus His Son. At His Son’s death, God the Father also lifted the death of all His beloved off from us and laid upon Jesus. The righteous God, thus, met His justice at His Son’s death. He was satisfied through His Son’s death, thus, erased, deleted, cancelled, the death penalty that was due for you and for me and for all true believers of the Son, Jesus Christ!

By this, Jesus became – not figuratively or symbolically, but actually and really – the sinner upon whom the collective sins of all God’s elect were laid. As the result, people like you and I became in God’s sight innocent, sinless ones dressed in bright white robes – like Moses and Elijah who stood next to the Lord Jesus on that mount of transfiguration. God’s fiery sword of judgment was laid upon Jesus on your behalf and mine, and instead God’s hand of blessing is laid on our head, thus, His love and grace overflow from our cups!

In Jesus, God’s justice has already met which means no more justice is left for you to meet and satisfy. You’re done with God’s justice already through Jesus and by faith in Him. This also means that you have already appeased the wrath of God. About this wrath of God, I explained last week, and just to remind you briefly, God’s wrath is not like man’s anger or rage, but God’s holiness and righteousness as well as His grace shone on a sinner. Only upon sinners does such divine nature of God become furious anger and wrath. But upon any born-again Christian, the same is the overwhelming and overflowing blessing from God because of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion
What must you take to your heart, then, from today’s sermon message? My friends, believe in Jesus Christ because He is your God. My fellow Christians, put your trust in Jesus alone because He came to earth, became man just for you. Moreover, He satisfied all the requirements of the law and commandments on your behalf and to give you satisfaction rather than frustration for your disability of keeping any of the laws.

But most importantly, remember and engrave onto your soul this tremendous truth, that is, He suffered in your stead; He died in your position so that you would not taste eternal suffering in hell, nor to be pierced in eternal death in sin! But to rest in Him and rejoice in His abundant grace!

So, give Jesus all your praise, surrender to Him unconditionally, seek His help ceaselessly because He is your only Saviour. And come and worship Jesus, very God of very God, in the Spirit and in the midst of His congregation now and eternity. ***